10th May, 2012
Everton winger Royston Drenthe has hit out at Lionel Messi, claiming that the Barcelona ace called him a ‘negro’ on more than one occasion.
The Dutchman locked horns with the Argentine international a number of times during his spells at Real Madrid and Hercules, and admitted that he would always have problems with Messi in off-the-ball incidents.
“We played against each other a lot, and we always had problems. You know what really bothers me? That tone with which he always called me ‘negro, negro’,” Drenthe stated in an interview with Dutch magazine Helden.
Drenthe went on to explain that although he realises the use of the term is quite common in South America, he finds it hard to deal with, and explained that his former teammate Mahamadou Diarra had similar problems.
“I understand that it is very common in South America, but we cannot stand it. Mahamadou Diarra, my teammate at Real, would become furious when Gabriel Heinze and Gonzalo Higuain initially called him ‘negro’. But they soon stopped.